GDHQNBA15_2pg-L.A. Clippers

Indiana Pacers Gameday HQ

WESTERN CONFERENCE
PACIFIC DIVISION
Los Angeles
NBA actors Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan would have been all too
happy to get their Jerry Maguire on and re-enact the You-Complete-Me
scene with backup bigs Spencer Hawes, Ekpe Udoh and Glen Davis.
After years of coming up short in their search for second-string
power forwards and centers, the Clippers on the court continually came
up short in playoff bids to go beyond the Western Conference Semifinals.
As great as Griffin was, as much as Jordan would improve and as
well as Paul would lead, it was never enough.
Simply put, it was because the L.A. Clippers were never big enough.
It helped a bit when Big Baby Davis joined L.A. for half a
season last year.
But the Clips still never had a stretch big, who could open up the
floor. They seldom had an imposing force to protect the paint. They
rarely had a big, who was, you know, really big, as in wide big.
Now they have all three, respectively, with Spencer Hawes, Ekpe
Udoh and Davis.
Big-man depth is what you need when you go up against the Spurs,
Thunder and Grizzlies in battling for those Final Four berths.
And the Clippers are now complete, now that they have that.
DEFENSE
While Doc Rivers got Jordan to buy into the defensive program
and play D like no Clippers’ center since Marcus Camby (a Clippers
mentor during Jordan’s rookie year), this year’s challenges for Doc
are much bigger.
Now Rivers must convince the entire team to buy in to a system
he and Tom Thibodeau once devised for a Kevin Garnett-led
championship squad.
To put it lightly, it’s still a work in progress.
The Clippers were good enough on D last season, posting a 102.1
points allowed per 100 possessions, ranking seventh in the League,
while Jordan himself became a top 10 defensive center.
The team, however, has much room for improvement, especially when
it came to bench play from the bigs.
The stat that glaringly stood out was how the Clips
only retrieved 49.6 percent of their rebound opportunities,
ranking 20th in the league.
But that’s what happens when none of your players
who log 500-plus minutes—besides Griffin (14.7 rebound
percentage; +1.99 defensive Real Plus-Minus) and Jordan
(21.6 rebound percentage; +3.38 dRPM)— grab more
than 10 percent of their rebound opportunities, like last
season’s scrawny bunch.
That’s where Hawes (14.6 rebound percentage), Davis (11.9
percent) and Udoh (10.5 percent) come into the picture, not
only bringing halfway-decent rebounding skills, but good
defensive reps as well (Hawes, +0.40 dRPM), Davis (+2.04
dRPM) and Udoh (+2.83 dRPM).
It’s a known fact that the Clippers can only get so much
defense from a guard and wings squadron that features
Chris Paul, Jamal Crawford, J.J. Redick and Matt Barnes (CP3
is the only one amongst them that can be confused for an
All-Defense candidate).
Yes, if the Clippers are going to be true championship
contenders, they cannot afford for their backup power
forwards and centers to do less than their share. Yes, at
minimum, they must rebound and defend when Griffin and/
or Jordan hit the bench.
OFFENSE
Nobody does it better than the Clippers, when Paul is floating alleyoops
to Lob City co-mayors Griffin and Jordan, whilst the team posts
the No. 1 offensive efficiency in the League at 109.4 points per 100
possessions, as was the case last season.
Mix in floor-spacing phenoms Redick (makes 40 percent of threes,
and attempts triples on 47 percent of his shots), Crawford (36 and
44, respectively) and Barnes (34 and 54), and you see how Rivers
has set the table for his top six players to overwhelm his foes in all
facets of the game.
It’s doesn’t hurt either when his Big Three keeps making big strides
in their individual games.
Griffin, who played his first NBA game just four years ago, shot
30 percent on midrange twos (10-16 feet) as a rookie and 34 percent
on long twos (16-22 feet) with only 26 percent of his shots coming
within that range.
Four NBA seasons later, Griffin has gone from a horrible outside
shooter to a mediocre one, now making 40 percent on mid-range
twos and 37 percent on long twos, with 29 percent of his shots coming
from that range.
You see, Griffin is not shooting that inefficient shot a whole lot
more than he used to, but he has worked to make it better when he
does shoot it. And he continues to dominate in the paint in a way that
Chris Paul
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